St. James – we are coming!

Drove 3.500 km by car along three important Ways of St. James and walked individual stretches of way … checked the quality of about 30 hotels and 10 restaurants … visited 5 cathedrals, numberless churches and chapels … discovered a number of wonderful power places … these catchwords describe the result of twice 10 days of preparation and planning for our spiritual journey 2016.

Many roads lead to Rome but probably even more to Santiago de Compostela! There is, for instance, the French-Spanish Way of St. James from the east, the British Way from the north, the Portuguese Way from the south, and the North Way from the northeast. We spent most of our time on the French-Spanish route, because it contains the most beautiful cultural sights.

It was not always easy to find the routes; especially the British Way of St. James, of which we were unable to get a description on site, was extremely difficult to find. Like detectives we looked for the sparse hints at the wayside, asked locals, all of whom spoke English, for the way with our scant knowledge of Spanish. Many of them did not even know that there is a British Way of St. James that actually only runs a few kilometres away from their front door.

But it was worth the effort! We were able to arrange a beautiful and very varied travel route that combines culture with spirituality and does not lack good food and comfortable hotels. Every day we are going to walk short, but sublime parts of the Way of St. James, most of the time on the French-Spanish Way and on the last day on the British Way, so that we get to the seashore. The culmination is going to be the visit we are going to pay to the cathedral in Santiago, the much longed-for destination of all the pilgrims on the Way of St. James.